How to Create Powerful Customer Experiences

Ideas to make it easy on your customers

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:11:00 +0000

I’m sure you’ve heard me mention you should make things easier for your customers. Today’s highly competitive market place, with great product and service parity, means the customer experience is the critical element for customer engagement and retention.

Have you been thinking about how to make your customer’s lives easier? Yes. Great.

No? Okay, I’ll let you off the hook this one time. :) Here are some ideas that might jumpstart your efforts. Consider:

Deliver customer communications, like invoices, updates, newsletters, etc., via email or paper (allowing customers to choose).

Can customers easily buy more services or products from you? Maybe they want to upgrade or add another service to their existing package? Can they do that from your Web site?

Do you offer web self-service (to any degree)? This way customers can update online their billing information, mailing information, products and services they buy from you (see idea above).

Can customer’s sign up for an automatic re-order? This could be every two months, just ship more of your product. Or, at least offer an email alert every two months with a reminder to buy more and a link to do so--and maybe a repeat customer discount.

Make it easy for customers to find your Web site via a search engine. Your customers may not recall your Web site URL and need to Google you. Can they find you in the top 3 results when they Google your name or specific service/product?

Is it easy to ask your company a question or get more information? Where is your phone number published? On your Web site (top of page or Contact page)? On your invoices? On your marketing materials.

Upgrade your email customer service--that improves the experience. Respond to all emails within 24 hours, or 48 hours at the latest. Customers want a response in 24 hours or less, and so many companies still fail to even reply to customer emails at all (like Netflix, don’t get me started).

Any of these suggestions give you an idea? It doesn’t always have to be hard to improve the customer experience and get more business. There are tools online that can help you with many of the above experience upgrades and they aren’t necessarily difficult or costly.

Let’s remember how important the customer experience is. An increase in customer repeat business and retention can help your bottom line in a powerful way. This week I came across this statistic, “A two-percent increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10 percent.” (Source: Business Gain from How You Retain, CMO Council with CSC, IBM and Dun & Bradstreet, April 2008)

So jump in.

Online customer communities and Ning

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:55:00 +0000

I'm in love…with the social networking platform Ning.com. I've been a member of online communities built on this platform (like SWOM), but now I appreciate how easy this platform really is to use. And it’s cheap. (Free, actually, if you are willing to let it include ads.)

Yesterday I created an online network for a local school--for parents and teachers--in 15-20 minutes. Really! You pick which modules you want: forums, event calendar, videos, photo gallery, and other content, and pick their location on the page. Next, choose a color and font, and presto you have a cool online community. Yes, you then have to get folks to the site, but that is always the case. I even thought of blowing up my own consulting website and just using a Ning site. I love it that much.

Plus, I love Ning because of the customer communities you can build on it. Why not create a place to listen to and engage with customers? It works for Starbucks (the customer community element).

Here’s an idea: invite your top customers to join an online community you’ve built. You can then interact with them, pose questions in the forum area for discussion and get all kinds of feedback. Plus, you can encourage them to connect with each other. There is often value in that--customers connecting with each other.

Check out Ning.com and have fun building and talking to your customers.

Ah, that bush smells great

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:27:00 +0000

I've been enjoying all the flowering trees and plants as I walk through my neighborhood in the last month. Yes, spring is that late in New England. The other day I walked by a terrifically fragrant bush, but I had no idea what it was (and I know a good number of trees and plants). I took a tiny clump of flowers off this tree (it was next to the subway station near my house) to the local florist.

The two employees and one customer in the store stopped what they were doing to help me identify this plant. We were talking about it and finally the customer realized it was a Spiraea (picture of bush here). What a terrific smelling bush--and it is perfectly beautiful and unique from other flowering trees. I added it to my list of trees I want in my yard when I finally buy a house.

To get back on track, while we were discussing what plant this was, one of the employees went to the Internet and pulled up information about Spiraea and proceeded to print it out and give it to me. Hello! That is terrific service. Clearly they weren’t going to get a sale from helping me identify this plant, however, these savvy employees knew that relationships grow business.

The moral of the story here is to take care of customers, to invest in the relationship not just transactions. Meaning, don’t just focus on those who can buy right now, but help and support those who might need your services in the future or reach out to you for connections, ideas, information or whatever. Value is delivered in different ways, and help with information was valuable to me during this store visit. I can tell you I will go back to that store (and I’ve never bought anything there before) to buy something--and soon. What a fun experience. I felt connected to these fellow plant lovers and that is a nice connection. And here I am telling others--just like that (in other words, a relationship focus grows word of mouth, too).

How can you nurture relationships instead of transactions only? Can you spend a bit more time on the phone with your customers/clients and listen to their needs and challenges, and not only focus on the transaction at hand? How much time do you spend now on relationship building compared to or in addition to handling the transactions of business? That’s food for thought.

How you can help your business with 10 pennies

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:32:00 +0000

Today I was thinking about a convenient idea, or trick, that will help you remember to be nice to your customers (and employees). I’ve heard Jack Mitchell talk about his habit of putting ten pennies in one pocket of his pants or jacket at the start of the day. His goal is to transfer all ten to the other pocket by the end of the day. I just love that idea.

Each time you “hug” a customer or employee transfer a coin from one pocket to the other. At the end of the day you’ve gone out of the way to help, support, listen or encourage an employee or customer ten times, and it cost you nothing. You can grow the value of your business this way because “investing” in relationships (employee or customer) does benefit your business. The more you care for a person the more they appreciate you. The more they feel like you are in a relationship with them, the more they remember you. It’s all good.

So try it out. Put ten pennies in your pocket and challenge yourself to get them into the other pocket by the end of the day. Yes, you can use email, phone, in-person conversations and more. I’m going to try it out myself.

You can learn more about hugging customers or hugging employees from Jack’s books. Or using those search terms on this blog.

The focus on Customer Experience grows

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:44:00 +0000

According to a Forrester study, "Customer Experience Spending Intensifies in 2008," more than 80% of study participants say that improving the usefulness and ease of use of their Web sites (online experience) is more important this year than in the past. In fact, the top two spending priorities found in this report are: Web analytics and customer satisfaction surveys. Ah, two of my favorite measurable tactics.

These two tactics reveal a growing interest in improving customer experiences and seeing the result (and a focus on listening to the customers). Making an effort in these two areas can help you improve a Web site and an overall company; additionally, they can provide metrics that reveal the result of customer experience investments/expenditures. How?

First, Web analytics can reveal where your customers get stuck on your Web site. Why they don’t contact you, purchase your products, or even read or download your best content. You know what you most want visitors to your Web site to do/buy/read--this is a measurement of that. There are also numbers to this work that reveal what percentage of customers return to your Web site and how they behave once there.

When you start focusing on Web analytics you can benchmark how you perform online and gauge the kind of experience your customers are having. When you make an effort to improve your online experience, watch for the impact on page views, visit duration, how often visitors return and more. This reveals the impact of your customer experience and helps illustrate the financial benefit in such investments. For example, if you can improve the experience on your Web site, your phone might ring more, or you might have more people email you to learn more about your services, etc.

Second, customer surveys reveal the quality of the experience you offer your customers--and they are quantifiable. Assigning values to each survey question and answer means you can watch how those values change over time as you improve the experience. Meaning, ask the same survey questions over time and see how the values change after you invest in improving the customer experience. Surveys can reveal an improvement in service and how it impacts repeat purchases. Surveys can reveal who your most viral customers are, and you can specifically track referrals from them. You name it, you can find a way to measure how your customers feel and watch the impact on those customers. When you improve the experience, you can see a change.

You hear a lot about the customer experience on this blog--and I want you to feel that this is quantifiable, trackable work--not all of it, but there are ways and it’s important to know how to do this. If you’d like me to write more about this topic of measuring the customer experience, please post a comment below.

Loyalty and fees

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:19:00 +0000

It has been proven that a good experience is more important to the average U.S. consumer than price. But, of course, price or fees do matter. You can’t disregard pricing of your services or products.

Recently, American Airlines decided to charge all passengers (except first class) to check any bags on the flight. This is the fee for each trip: checking one bag round trip is $30, checking two bags round trip is $50. I, for one, am not pleased. You know American travelers are going to increase the size and weight of carry-on baggage. The size of carry-on bags has gotten ridiculous already. No one wants to check a bag because it takes more time and can get lost.

What I find so disagreeable about these fees is that the experience of flying (unless you go first class) is nothing great already. In fact, it is usually not very good at all. And it sounds like American Airlines isn’t stopping at this fee. They are going to charge you if you want to talk to a live person when you check in instead of using their self check-in kiosks (which don’t offer the same flexibility and options as using a human check-in process). This is too much.

Consumers are willing to pay for improved service and improved treatment (a la first class and the executive club lounges), but when service is poor, additional fees feel like insults. I’d be open to a fee for luggage if there was an improvement in service--like a guarantee that my bag would make it to my destination or they would refund my money and give me an inconvenience fee, too. That would make their baggage handling a priority and reward them for good work and penalize them for poor work. (Yes, there could be some exceptions to the rules.)

While I understand there is an increase in fuel pricing and airlines are compensating by charging the customers, I don’t think the $25 per bag is going to make a real difference - especially if it causes them to lose customers, or if more people choose to carry on heavy bags. Sorry to say, but the airline industry isn’t profitable and more fees won’t help their cause. If anything, it will hurt. Southwest Airlines is one of the few airlines to turn a profit for several consecutive years. They offer amazing service (and cookies)! You can only cut a service so far and increase fees so much before someone figures out a better way to offer customers service--and they will be the new golden child.

This may sound too simplistic, but when a company doesn’t care about customers and then adds growing fees--you can see the problem that creates.

Join the conversation with your customers

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:13:00 +0000

I just finished a book you are going to love: “Join the Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership” by Joseph Jaffe.

You can probably tell from my blog that I love new models in business, communication and especially customer relationships. This book echoes these themes. It’s a wake-up call from the old style of marketing and one-way communication (from company to customers).

Jaffe has come from the ad agency world (where I started my career, too) and realizes the decline of old-style marketing effectiveness. He recognizes the radical transformation in consumers today in how they want to live, buy and engage. Jaffe says, “In a new marketing world, where conversation trumps communication, there is no hegemony, only partnership.” I love this--a company doesn’t own its customers or dictate terms anymore, it’s a whole new world and it’s a lot more flexible.

He also says, “Marketing must evolve.” Jaffe suggests it is time to find out where your customers are talking and engaging, and join in. He points out the road can be tricky but offers good ideas and advice. You’ll find he cites examples of brands doing this successfully and those doing the exact opposite--failing to be relevant to their customers.

I especially like two acronyms he uses. First, RUE: relevance, utility and entertainment, to describe the foundation for communication. Second, EPIC: experience, permission, involvement, conversation. (If you read this blog regularly you know these are some of my favorite words.)

Just yesterday I was sitting with the owner of a car repair chain and I recommended this book to him. He wanted to know where marketing was headed and I said it’s all about the customer experience--no more one-size-fits-all communication, and a shift towards putting resources and effort in growing customer relationships. He wrote it all down. He’s been taking steps in this direction and it’s been paying off.

If you want to read a good articulation of where marketing and customer relationship management is heading--pick up this book.

My negative Netflix experience

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:48:00 +0000

The more I use Netflix, the more negative customer experiences happen to me--and I can’t be the only one experiencing these things.

Negative experiences often start when a company changes or adds procedures without looking at all the ways customers may have to work through these new systems.

You can never forget to completely walk through what it’s like as a customer of your business on a regular basis (like quarterly)--especially when a change is about to happen. I do this kind of step-by-step analysis for my clients and they are often surprised when negative experiences exist. These negative experiences can crop up. It often happens because of the pace of business and change, not because you aren’t trying to provide good service. However, an evaluation of the experience you offer your customers is critical because when you can’t consistently deliver experiences that exceed customer expectations you are destroying business value.

Read on if you want to know the painful details of my negative Netflix experiences.

Issue One: Separate movie lists create multiple hardships

My husband and I have separate movie queues in Netflix. It alternately pulls one from each list. This was a new addition to the Netflix system, one that would seem positive. However, what actually happens with this separate list system creates negative experiences.

Once you have separate lists, whoever is the "name" on the account is the primary account holder and the other person becomes a pariah (I'm the pariah here).

Each time I want to access my queue I have to log in on my husband’s side and switch over. Okay, not too big a deal, but not great when they sell the separate list thing as some great miracle.

When I have a problem with my DVD--it is broken, cracked, skips (this happens at least 60% of the time for me), I can’t register the issue from my queue (where the DVD is). I have to log out and in again, and then dig around for the “report an issue” link.

This must happen all the time--the damaged DVDs--try shipping millions of DVDs without a padded envelop that are then shoved into all kinds of mail boxes (like my tiny vintage one).

I have no idea why Netflix has their system set up like this. I used to be able to report any issues from my queue. So now I have the incredible frustration of a DVD that skips or won’t play (bad enough) and then I have to bear the horrible Web site experience.

Issue Two: Giving a gift is a nightmare

Want to give a friend or family member the gift of Netflix? Seems easy enough. You pick how many months and what plan. BUT when you read the fine print you learn you are actually shafting your friend or family member.

When the friend redeems the plan they have to put in their credit card number. Lame, why make a gift recipient have to do that. It’s annoying and makes the gift a lot less enjoyable.

That same credit card number then becomes Netflix’s permission to start charging the gift recipient for the full service as soon as the gift term ends. WHAT? This is insane and wrong. They put the onus on the gift receiver to contact Netflix and cancel the subscription they never set up to start with--they were just redeeming a gift. This is lower than low. Once I learned this I refused to give a gift of Netflix. I like my family too much for this kind of treatment. And since I know Netflix customer service stinks (they never respond to my emails), I have no confidence that they will help the gift recipient either.

Netflix--boo--you can do better than this. You want to stay top dog? You have to fix these issues pronto. Customers will talk; they are in charge now--it’s time to listen.

P. S. When I first started using DVD mail rental service I started with www.walmart.com and they sold that part of their business to Netflix. I never had problems with Wal-Mart’s service.

=====
Update: I emailed Netflix my comments (again and a link to this blog) and they sent me a really poor auto response email which reads:

"Thank you for your message. All requests, suggestions, business inquiries and offers will be forwarded to the appropriate person. Due to the volume of messages we receive, we regret that we are unable to personally respond to each one..."

Please never write a message like this one. Nothing says "we don't care about customers" than telling customers you have such a high volume of activity you can't respond to them.

Change is good, right?

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:02:00 +0000

I was walking by an old Filene’s department store building--an old time anchor of the outdoor shopping area called Downtown Crossing here in Boston. The building is partially demolished. I mean a whole city block. The old structure looks sad. It looks like a relic and is so massive you can’t help but notice.

It made me think about how times have changed, and how business must evolve and adapt. When that building was first erected at the end of the 19^th century, (yes, that long ago) I’m sure it was cutting edge and such a delight to shoppers who could find everything under one roof. That physical building doesn’t represent how many people shop today--all in one physical place. This isn’t a blog on the doom of department stores or malls, but you’ve seen retail businesses changing and it is resistless. For example, how many stores now offer online buying and local pick-up? More and more.

What else is resistant to change? Your business. What changes have you made in the way you communicate with customers? Respond to their needs? Connect with other service providers you need to collaborate with?

If you haven’t changed your business much in years I’d be concerned. What can happen is that you don’t feel or see the changes in your customer base and then they walk out the door to your competition. Someone in your industry is taking the time to figure out customers want in 2008 and how they want to work with companies they do business with. (Lucky for me since this is what I do for a living.)

Customer’s expectations change, their needs change and you know how willing they are to change companies if they can find better service. How have your customer’s expectations changed of your business? How do they want to do business with you today? Via Web site appointment scheduling? Via email? With customer service agents who treat them well and are being honest. How fast are you adapting?

Good news is your customers will tell you what they want--ask them. Let’s start with something basic, ask them: What method of communication they want you to use when contacting them (phone, email, paper mailing)? As a customer I want certain things via email and others via paper mail and nothing by phone. If I could turn off my landline I would (partly because of all the spam phone calls / telemarketers).

There are so many ways to communicate today and your customers will have a preference. At the minimum ask them this question--it is an important part of customer relationships that last. Then get ready for even more change and make it step by step--and never ending.

Kudos to Starbucks

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Businesses that want to grow should do what? Listen to their customers. That is exactly what Starbucks is doing. We all know they have been struggling lately and brought back their founder, Howard Schultz, in an active role to get the business back on track.

Starbucks has opened a Web forum to collect customer feedback and allow customers to vote on their favorite ideas--without any limit. I’ve voted on at least 15 ideas already. (It’s addicting.) Now, many of these ideas aren’t surprising or earth shattering, but let me explain what this forum does for Starbucks, and I’ll award points accordingly.

Customers feel valued and heard when you allow them to share ideas and feedback. (5 points)
Ask customers to help prioritize the ideas. (5 points)
Show customers what you are doing based on their input. (10 points)
Make this an on-going effort. (5 points)

Score = 25 points

Their Web site is doing all this. Here is a good article about the Starbucks Web site and recent efforts.

Other lessons here include:

You can’t rest on your laurels even when you are a growing business and people love you. There is always room for improvement.
When you don’t work to improve the customer experience you are on a decline--it’s that simple. Focus on exceeding customer expectations all the time.
Small things have a big impact--one of my favorite lessons. For Starbucks, when the coffee is ground is critical--they learned that the hard way.
Never underestimate your competition.

It’s time to hug your people

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:37:00 +0000

Jack Mitchell’s latest book, “Hug your people,” is great. It’s an easy-to-read book full of practical tips and examples from Jack’s experience and observations of years of running a family retail business.

I’m a fan of books focused on management because good management is a foundation of positive experiences, happy customers and a growing business.

I also like lists. Lists of top ideas, suggestions, and guidelines--the book has plenty. Here are a few of the great lists I found in this book. (You’ll want to buy a copy, this is just to give you a sense of the helpful ideas you can find inside it.)

High level concepts

The book begins with a focus on the power of positive words and actions. These 5 concepts each have a section, but their themes run through the whole book.

Nice
Trust
Pride
Include
Recognize

Mitchell says that if you succeed in these 5 principles, “…you will produce loyal and effective associates and the strongest of strong teams.” I have to say I agree. His ideas are practical and I’ve seen them work first-hand.

Hiring

Jack offers 5 criteria in identifying who to hire:

Integrity
Positive attitude
Passion to listen, learn and grow, to be the best you can be, every day
Competent and confident
Nice

He also gives good advice on how to interview--because that is where it starts. Hire the right people and then keep them. The rest of the book is about keeping your associates. The book also addresses how to set expectations with associates and how to include them, celebrate them and even pay them. I like the focus on how to build pride in the workplace--as a great way to grow engagement.

How to build the feeling of inclusion

The last list I’ll mention is this--how to help associates feel included:

Invite
Input
Include
Involve
Invest

If you have to manage staff in any capacity you’ll want to check out this book. It has specific ideas and great examples. This is a terrific book to share with clients, customers, friends and your boss.

Have fun reading.

P.S. My other favorite management book is, “First Break All the Rules: What the World’s Best Managers Do Differently.”

Not a best buy

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:31:00 +0000

Many companies think the best way to ensure they deliver a positive customer experience is to make sure all customers are treated the same and all employees follow a system or process 100% of the time.

Wrong.

I’m going to share a story I was told about Best Buy. The story illustrates a company’s desire to make every experience the same.

This fellow, let’s call him Mark, had done his research and went to Best Buy to get a new computer for his son. He knew what he wanted, and wanted to buy the item and leave the store happy. Not possible. He found employees are required to ask everyone who buys a computer a series of questions (a 5-page form, in fact). While Mark tried to explain he was okay and just wanted to pay for the computer, the employee told him he had to complete the questionnaire or said employee would get in trouble (sign of a bad process). So Mark waited through the process then expected to go the register. Not possible. The employee escorted him to a long line of people at a special service desk. The employee at the service desk went through the paper the first employee filled out and tried to sell those features and services again.

When a process is this rigid and clearly customer unfriendly (long form, reviewing it twice, forced to wait in a long line instead of the regular check out) it cannot create happy customers very often.

While Best Buy’s intent may be to help customers think through all their needs while still in the store, they are surely trying to sell more services, too. There is nothing wrong in finding out a customer’s real needs in a natural conversation and then helping them meet those needs. I know a company that does this well--Jack Mitchell’s clothing stores in CT and NY. (Read his book, “Hug Your Customers,” if you want to know how he does this. And he has a new book out: “Hug Your People,” with a focus on employees that also is great. I’ll review that book here later.) However, an awkward and lengthy form cannot come across as anything other than self-serving for Best Buy.

I’d say this process is in the best interest of Best Buy and definitely not its customers. I cannot imagine anyone not being frustrated by this level of “support” and number of bottlenecks. Now that I’ve heard this story you can be sure I will be sticking with Costco and other e-commerce sites for my technical needs. Although, I did get my iPod at Best Buy and escaped without a nasty process I’m glad to say.

Lessons for companies to learn:

Don’t box employees into processes. Often the inflexibility of requiring employees to follow a set process means they can’t adapt as a customer or situation requires. What other company does this well? Southwest Airlines. (Southwest has the lowest number of complaints of all US airlines with 0.18 per 100,000 customers. Also, they are the only US airline to be profitable for multiple consecutive years--35 years, in fact.)
Do not create too many steps in any process for a customer to get to a satisfaction point (purchase).
Do not ask lots of questions at any point in a relationship--let alone when it’s at the start of a transaction or relationship. I don’t like long surveys period. It’s better to ask questions in installments over time.

What's up with iTunes?

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:00:00 +0000

This is an example of how to create a panicked customer experience. Why do I tell such a story? Because it is a cautionary tale of what to avoid and a story about a little piece of information paired with a customer’s real life issue creating a negative experience and association with a particular company.

I’ve just been reminded that iTunes only allows you to access your account and download music from 5 computers.

Why do I care? I went through 3 new laptops last year. Yes, I am serious. I bought a refurbished HP laptop that had problems. I made that mistake twice. Then I bought a brand new HP machine (Because I’ve been through Dell hell, which is worse.) that I’m using now.

The above scenario means I used up 3 account installs. That, in addition to our old household laptop, means we only have 1 iTunes account left. Since the old house laptop is slow and has keys that barely work we will have to replace it at some point. Ack. That would mean we’re on our last iTunes account.

Why am I panicked? I have no idea, but I just saw a message when I re-installed iTunes on my recently cleared-off hard drive (courtesy of HP--more on that in a separate blog) and it made me realize, oh no, we may run out of accounts.

I think this will mean all the songs we bought with that account will no longer be available to us in iTunes. We might have to burn them to CDs and then upload them again to iTunes. Maybe we can’t even do that. (And my husband LOVES shopping on iTunes.)

The bottom line…

My point is: the combination of a company message with the background of a particular customer can create a negative experience, even if it’s not intentional.

If you don’t know the context behind your customers’ interaction with your product or services--find out. Launch a brief e-mail survey or even have a phone chat with them. You want customers to enjoy your products and services, not panic. Be open with them (like iTunes is doing), but consider the impact of your policies and communications and think about how it may affect experiences and retention. Your bottom line will thank you.

Smart viral marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:10:00 +0000

I received this e-mail today from DSW, a shoe warehouse.

It is a good example of:
1) Offering existing customers something more than new customers. (Rarely done and it insults existing customers--think cell phone deals.) In this offer existing customers in their program get 30% off.

2) A smart approach to viral (word-of-mouth) marketing. Any one you forward the e-mail to can use the coupon and get 20% off. This is smart because: (a) it is a fun-looking offer that is easy to share (via e-mail), print and use; (b) it encourages people to sign up for their free membership program to get the larger discount; and (c) there is no limit to how many times you can share the coupon.

Take note of these ideas--they are worth trying yourself. How can you thank existing customers and make them feel appreciated? Instead of special offers for new customers think about what your existing customers would most like.

The second idea is: make it easy for your customers to spread the word about your business. Could you create an e-mail, or even something in hard copy, that is easy for your customers to share? This kind of thinking and effort can really pay off.

KeySpan’s crazy phone calls

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:14:00 +0000

My local gas company, KeySpan, called me last week to ask when they could replace my gas meter. They explained the meter must be replaced every 5 years, and it was time.

Okay. Sure. I told KeySpan there are 6 units in my building and I could let them into the basement once and they could change all 6 then. They couldn’t really figure out what to do with that information. Oh well, I tried to help their efficiency.

They called 3 times the evening before the scheduled visit. My time slot was an 8am to 1pm window. (Who wants to sit home all that time?) Each call was a reminder that they were coming the next day. The first call said I didn’t schedule an appointment, but they hoped I would be home; then the next two calls said they did reserve a time to replace my meter and would come the next day.

What was the good part of this experience? They did call 20 minutes before arriving and I was able to get ready for their impending arrival.

Then I wondered if any customer has ever told them about the 3 phone calls, or discussed the possibility of getting multi-units scheduled better. So, I went to their Web site to provide feedback and found out I couldn’t e-mail them. They limit the topics you can e-mail them about--I couldn’t even get to an e-mail form. That is the worst part of all this. I want to tell them--to help them--to give them feedback, and I can’t.

Do you remember my mantra, “Make it easy for your customers to do business with you.”? It applies here. While KeySpan did contact me to make the appointment to replace my gas meter, it doesn’t make my life easier when they book a 5-hour window for their appointment, or make it impossible to contact them via their Web site.

Society for Word of Mouth

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:15:00 +0000

I've just come across the Society for Word of Mouth. What a great idea. It is a new site that will provide help, support, resources, ideas on growing customer evangelism. It was started by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell who wrote one of my favorite business books on this topic.

If you are interested to learn more about how to support customer word of mouth, check out the site here.

Employee evangelism story

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:13:00 +0000

Read this brief blog to see a great example of the power of your internal culture in creating employee evangelists (a.ka. spreading word of mouth). HP past employees are willing to evangelize HP products for free! It's great.

Read it here.

"The Speed of Trust"

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:52:00 +0000

I’m really enjoying Stephen M.R. Covey’s book, “The Speed of Trust.” Actually, I’m loving it. And it’s only $10 on amazon.com. You have to get a copy.

I’m nearly done reading the book and especially like Covey’s outline of 13 elements or practices that build trust. He talks about how you can add or subtract from trust accounts that you have with people--with customers, with family and with friends--so true.

Let me get back to the 13 elements. This very practical breakout of elements includes a good explanation and an example for each. Here are the 13 ideas you can expect to learn more about in the book:

Talk straight
Demonstrate respect
Create transparency
Right wrongs
Show loyalty
Deliver results
Get better
Confront reality
Clarify expectations
Practice accountability
Listen first
Keep commitments
Extend trust

Were you nodding your head while reading the list? These principles all make sense. I appreciate the list and the specificity of what builds or destroys trust. This is a practical guide for good business and working relationships (plus he addresses personal relationships, too).

Can you imagine how you would feel as a customer if a company you did business with acted in the above ways? You’d love it. Me too.

This book is a good reference for employee and internal relationships as much as for customer relationships. I’ve already recommended it to several people as a great management tool. Especially, as you’ve heard me say before, because your employees deliver your customer’s experiences--so building trust with them is foundational to customer success.

Anyone see results from the Starbucks training day?

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:46:00 +0000

Recently, Starbucks closed all of it’s locations on the same night (Feb. 26) to conduct employee training. It even made the evening news (must have been a slow news night). What were the results? I haven’t seen it in the store. I can often cause the barista’s to pause with my special order. (Special orders being the focus of their full page ad campaign in pricey newspapers that ran after the special training day.) So I was hoping for trained employees who would know exactly what I meant without an explanation. Not in Santa Monica, where I was at the time. Oh well, my dream continues.

PS My order is a small (I don’t use their names for the sizes) non-fat chai misto. FYI: it’s actually steamed milk with a chai tea bag.

So, while my hopes as a customer weren’t met (Like all customers I assumed they talked about me and my drink order so everyone would know what it is.) in ways I had expected…the training evening had other effects. Consider these two:

#1 They got great PR. You don’t see any other retail store closing to have a special rally session with customers, including their tough competitors McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts (at least here on the east coast). Of course, closing the store could upset regular evening customers, but probably a minimal concern. And the upside is getting on the evening news when your business isn’t growing like it used to--not a bad idea.

#2 The employee investment/engagement value is high on something like this. You can read some employee blogs online and see the direct impact. The employees liked seeing the video from the CEO and the training on customer care. You gotta love employees who are excited to see a company talk about caring for customers--those are the great kind of employees Starbucks attracts.

Also, point number two should not be underestimated, especially in a business that is directly providing customer experiences all the time. Re-energizing employees periodically is important. Not in a cheesy “once a year sales meeting” way, but in a real “we’re invested in you, you’re a real part of this company, your growth is important to us” kind of way.

Post your experiences at Starbucks below.

Article: How to keep customers coming back

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:25:00 +0000

I recently started using a new email service and they have won me over by offering amazing customer service and by making it easier than I thought possible for me to switch to their service. My old company made it very difficult to communicate with them normally they were rude and totally unhelpful every time I needed something. You can be sure I’ll be telling everyone about my new email service: www.mailtrust.com.

Bottom line: To stand out from the competition and keep customers coming back you have to exceed their expectations. It is very hard to get repeat business from customers who have had a mediocre experience with your company.

Your customers have lots of choices - if you don't exceed their expectations they don't have much reason to use your services again.

What goes into exceeding expectations?

1. Tell customers what to expect from working with your company. Be clear. And don’t over-promise what you can really do. Let’s use a painting company as a example. Don’t tell a customer you are very thorough and never miss a detail –if you leave paint drips on their floor.

2. Ask them what customers care about the most. Is it sticking to the budget? Or it a flawless paint job, or something else? This gives you an idea of what is most the most important thing to them – the area where you must surpass their expectations. When you go to their home ask them, “What is most important to you on this project?” People will tell you – just ask.

3. Exceed expectations. If you treat customers the same way your competition does you won’t exceed expectations. Instead, go out of your way to understand what is important to your customers and focus on it. Don’t miss the little things like the dogs name or saying hello to the kids when they come home. You want everyone in the home to feel comfortable that you are working in their home.

What impresses customers?

Here are two big ideas.

1) Make it easy for customers to work with you.

Ask yourself: “How could I make it even easier for customers to work with us?”

Is it easy to understand your invoices?
Is it easy to communicate with your office? Are they very responsive?
Is there some way to simplify the communication between you and your customer? Can you use email if the customer prefers it? If that makes it easier for them to reach you, then it is important.

Your customers are very busy and when you save them time and make something easy for them – they will love you.

With my new email service, for only $5 a year they made my life a lot easier. They handled all the technology issues that arise when you have email with one company and a website with another–like I do. And they took care of all my issues in 1 phone call. It couldn’t be easier to work with them.

2) Consistency at every customer interaction.

Imagine you are “on stage” during the whole project. Consider every interaction.

How does your office staff answer the phone and treat customers from the first call through the final invoice and customer survey?
Every interaction needs to be helpful, kind, and supportive of the customer. If you are nice on the phone and then hard to deal with in-person, customers notice that and won’t want to come back.
You have to maintain the same tone, style, and top-notch service during the whole project, no matter which employee interacts with the customer.

Does this sound hard? It might. But is it worth the time to understand how every customer interaction is managed and if you can do a better job? Yes it is – keep reading and find out why.

The power of happy customers

Customers who have their expectations exceeded (a) may come back and use your services again, and (b) may tell others about the great experience and give you new business.

Customers who walk away unhappy will (a) tell other people about their disappointment, and (b) may be difficult in terms of getting payments. An unhappy customer will damage your business faster than anything else can because news of a bad experience travels faster than positive news.

Let’s go back to exceeding expectations. If you can get even 10% more of your customers to want to use you repeatedly then your business could grow by 40%. How? It’s cheaper to keep working with the same customer – you already know them, you know how they work, you are more efficient as a result when you work with them. Plus you don’t have to spend as much money on advertising and marketing this way because you’ll get new projects without spending a dime. And who doesn’t want to save more money?

When your customers hire you again and see you exceed their expectations for the second time they know your company is one they will want to continue to use. When they can trust your company to always deliver an amazing experience, one that is professional and brings great results, they will come back again. Trust and consistently exceeding expectations means a lot to customers – especially because they trust you with the most expensive thing they have ever bought – their home.

Now that’s service

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:35:00 +0000

While sitting on a plane about to take off from Phoenix, headed to Boston, my husband and I sat next to a young guy who commented to us about our Bose headphones. Come to find out he works in customer service for Bose in Massachusetts.

We had a nice conversation about the Bose noise cancelling headphones. My husband happens to love these headphones. We ended up telling this man about our original set that kept cracking over the years, eventually just breaking (my husband almost cried). We actually had the headphones with us, now taped together so I could use them on the plane (yes, they looked funny but they block airplane noise really well). And my husband had just purchased a new pair.

The good news is in the telling of the story of the broken headphones, this customer service rep let’s us know about the Bose replacement policy. (I didn't even know they had a policy like this.)

Now that is customer service! He knows we already bought new headphones and taped up and glued the old ones so they are mostly usable. And this guy still tells us about the replacement policy. THEN, he writes down his customer service phone number and extension, and tells us to call him personally about our replacement. Just like that.

My husband followed up when we got home to Boston, and we returned the old, taped-up headphones. They are going to mail us a new pair. Now that is terrific service. I'm thrilled we sat next to the right guy on the plane!

Giving customers a heads-up

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:23:00 +0000

Does your company or industry have a big change coming up? For example, let's say you sell televisions. This time next year, analog TV sets won't be able to receive broadcasts without a special digital converter because the government is looking to auction off the analog spectrum of the airwaves. My advice is this: consider how changes in your business, industry, service or product will affect your customers WAY before the customer is affected.

In the example of TV sellers, they should be telling customers buying non-digital TV sets now that they will need to buy a converter (if they don't use a cable service) to make their TV work in the new era of TV signals. Plus, this is a good opportunity to show customers you are proactive. You could alert customers that have purchased from you in the past about the changes and even offer to pre-sell the converter box that can be sent to the customer's home before the change occurs. Or, partner with a cable company to offer customers proactive help.

What kind of negative word of-mouth might spread once a customer in that scenario realizes the TV company withheld key information (or forgot to share it)? The bad kind. Customer criticism spreads like wildfire. Of course, some customers won't change their purchase even knowing this bit of information, but not telling them is business suicide.

Keep customers in the loop. WAY in advance. Months and months in advance.

Even changes in the way you bundle your services or your prices should be communicated in advance. Customers will appreciate that you considered their interests and that is a powerful thing in today's hyper-competitive market.

The power of “customer centricity”

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:50:00 +0000

I love the phrase “customer centricity.” To me it means an organization that orders itself around customers: customer needs, preferences and goals. This order of organization is used instead of leaving the customers out of the equation and doing what is easiest for a company. (None you do that--that is why you read this blog.)

A recent “The CMO Council” report found 56% of vendors consider themselves very customer-centric, however only 12% of customers agree with that assessment. Sounds bad, eh? It is.

What are some of the elements of customer centricity?

1. An on-going focus on the customer experience

According to the same CMO Council report, more attentiveness to "customer affinity" is needed. That includes considerations such as employee training and competence, quality of service, quality of support, and commitment to customer needs.

2. Adjust your internal processes to better service customers needs

According to Donovan Neale-May, the CMO Council's executive director, "Companies have to stop being so promotion-driven and start giving customers what they expect, then rearrange their hierarchies to deliver on it." That is the essence of what we are talking about here.

3. Create and improve processes and products with customers

Another area where companies are falling short (according to this same report) is in co-innovating with customers. Nearly 60% of respondents feel co-innovation (regular collaborations and two-way conversations that lead to improvement in products and processes) is "extremely" or "very" important. The CMO Council says most companies keep customers in the dark when it comes to the development of product plans and roadmaps for the future.

You should read a great book on this called, “Outside Innovation,” by Patricia Seybold. The opportunities to create and improve elements of your business with your customers are endless. They can help you improve Websites, service, delivery and so much more.

Stay tuned for more about the elements of a customer centric organization.

Funny amazon.com customer service e-mail

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:33:00 +0000

Today one of my clients who also blogs and is very keen on amazing customer service sent me this link to a terrific amazon.com customer service e-mail.

If you want a good laugh and have a few minutes -- read this e-mail exchange with amazon. They managed to thrill a customer and be humorous at the same time (which is quite difficult to do).

My fun experience with Norton AntiVirus auto renewal

noreply@blogger.com (Kim Proctor) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:23:00 +0000

If you are a long-time reader of this blog you may recall an entry about software package renewals. McAfee scorned me, so I blogged. Quick recap: McAfee automatically renewed my subscription to their antivirus/firewall software even though I had already removed this software from my laptop. (Read that whole blog here.)

In its place, I subscribed to Norton AntiVirus/firewall. As the year-long subscription to their firewall and related software expired they emailed me in advance. Right on. Just as I had hoped, I had the opportunity to renew or cancel (which McAfee never let me do). That is a step in the right direction of creating a better customer experience.

But the problem wasn’t quite solved—Norton only sent one reminder and I didn’t remember I had three services. Actually, they sent one reminder per software subscription service. I guess I deleted one of the three by accident because one piece of the software service renewed. The other two I was able to cancel without too much hassle. (I was canceling the service because I don’t use that computer any more.)

So here I am with a $25 charge for some service I don’t need or use. And another blog on contract renewals. Don’t make the same mistakes as these companies.

I’ll make my point again. If you have contracts with renewal points make it easy for your customers to renew, make it easy for them to remember to renew and remind them more than once. I’m not the only person with several different e-mail accounts to sort through many times a day. Between the spam and legitimate emails, its possible things can get deleted by mistake. Sending more than one reminder is the nice thing to do.

As I wrote in my previous contract renewal blog, “Keep your customers informed. The marketplace for most products and services is very competitive and customer care and treatment is where you can stand out. Be known for customer care and orienting your business decisions as much around customers as around profit. It does work. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”